The Child as Research Subject

Abstract

Abstract The Nuremberg Code was adopted in 1946 in response to the documented abuse of human beings as research subjects by the Nazis. The Code was quite explicit that ‘[t]he voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential’. There was no mention of proxy consent; the subject had to be able to consent to participation. Later codes of ethics included the possibility of participation by incompetent subjects by permitting proxy consent. Whether such consent is morally adequate, particularly when the incompetent subjects are children, was the topic of a series of articles between two American Christian theologians, Paul Ramsey and Richard McCormick, in the early 1970s. Despite contributions by many other ethicists, there remains vigorous disagreement within the medical ethics community as to the morality of a child’s participation as a research subject.